Does weight affect the perception of men's violence against women?

Weight-based discrimination and men's violence against women are critical social issues, phenomena affecting the lives of countless women, men, and children. Rates of weight-based discrimination have been compared to those of racism and adverse effects linked to weight-based discrimination include decreased wages, social isolation, low self-esteem, and elevated rates of depression. Men's violence against women causes similar and more intensive effects, including lowered self-esteem, elevated levels of anxiety, broken bones, bruises, and death. Previous research has suggested a potential link between men's violence against women and weight, but no studies to date have explicitly explored the intersection of these phenomena. The current study proposes to fill this gap in the literature through the exploration of the perception of men's violence against women while manipulating the weight of the perpetrator and victim. Participants will be asked to read a vignette involving a man engaging in violence toward a woman and view photographs of the perpetrator and the victim. Participants will also complete four subsequent measures, including a demographics form as well as batteries assessing for attribution of blame, mindset, and sentence length for the perpetrator.